A San Mateo County convict serving 15 years to life in prison for strangling his ex-girlfriend with a cable in front of her young children and staging it as a suicide is suitable for release, a parole board concluded Tuesday.

Gov. Jerry Brown could still veto parole for Jose Gilbert Hernandez, 45, but the board’s move this week is a step toward that after several hearings that ended in denial.

On Jan. 25, 1993, Hernandez strangled his ex-girlfriend, Gloria Carrasco, at her Daly City apartment with a coaxial cable in front of her 4-year-old and 6-month-old children. Hernandez staged the scene to look like a suicide, complete with note, and left the body with the children. The 4-year-old eventually called her grandmother who found the scene and alerted police.

On Aug. 31, 1993, Hernandez pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. He also received another three years after pleading no contest to escape.

According to court documents filed by Hernandez when contesting a 2006 parole denial, Carrasco had been partially suspended off the ground by the cable which was looped around her neck and attached to the closet door hinge. A note nearby read “Jose, I love you. I’m sorry. Forgive me.”

Hernandez originally told police officers the couple had broken up approximately three weeks earlier but he had driven by her house early that morning and later asked that they reconcile. When she declined, Hernandez said he saw the wire on the bedroom floor and decided to murder Carrasco. After strangling her twice, he repositioned the cable to make it look like a suicide and wrote the note before leaving her children locked inside the home with the body. He then went to work and a movie.